Sonic cleaners

[chief99]

Now using the tumbler method for cleaning my brass . Want to know more about the Sonic cleaners . Are they noisier than the tumblers ? I know you use a cleaning solution with it , so do you have to hand dry the brass . Trying to save space on my bench and keep up with whats new and works well . Thanks .

 

[Schwing]

my brief foray into sonic cleaning left me unimpressed. It did get brass pretty clean but not better than dry tumbling. It is quieter than dry tumbling but more work and mess.

I recently switched to wet tumbling with stainless steel pins and won't ever go to any other method. It is a little more work than dry tumbling and you have to wait for your brass to dry like sonic cleaning but it takes about 1/3 the time and my brass looks new.

For wet tumbling or sonic I just dump them out on a towel and leave them overnight.

 

[JO JO]

will be the quietest for sure but was not impressed with the results it did OK but I switched to wet tumbling and prefer it to the sonic by far

 

[morrow]

Wet tumbling is cool, just make sure your naked when processing the wet brass so it doesn't ruin your clothes.

 

[joem1945]

I tried the sonic for cleaning brass. Not very happy so i went back to walnut shells. I do use the sonic to clean my pistols and gun parts. Cleans way better than I could ever do.

 

[dh1633pm]

I have both. I use the Sonic cleaner mostly to clean parts. I have used it to clean brass. It cleans it ok, but doesn't shine it.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

I use a sonic cleaner to clean a few pieces of black powder brass if I don't have enough to tumble yet.

If you clean right away or are cleaning smokeless brass it gets it clean enough to reload but not nearly as nice as tumbling.

The ultimate is tumbling wet with a rotary tumbler using the stainless pins or ceramic media.

 

[Don McDowell]

I use my Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner when shooting the bptr national match or some other when it's a long day shooting, lots of empties and a person doesn't really feel like messing with the thumblers.
I deprime the brass, put it in a coffee can and drop a scoop of Oxyclean in then wash and rinse, then from the can to the ultra sonic using Hornady's cleaning solution. Run two of the 8 minute cycles, rinse it and dry. It's good to go when it dried. Not quite as shiny as a couple of hours in the thumblers with ceramic media.
I've also done the same process with some knarly looking old used smokeless brass. The Oxyclean knocks a lot of the crud loose and the ultra sonic seperates it, from the brass. I do find by using hot water in the ultra sonic the brass will be a bit shinier.

 

[chief99]

Thanks for the advice . Think I will stick with my tumbler and corn cob media.

 

[Don McDowell]

Yup that set up you have works as good as any, and especially so if you're not shooting a bunch of cases that need to be cleaned in short order.
If you don't have one already the RCBS media separator is a very handy outfit.

 

[armarsh]

About 5-6 years ago I bought a 1.5 gallon US cleaner with 180W of power and a heater. It will clean 1/2 gallon of brass spotless inside and out in 20 minutes. I use Citrinox but Lemishine and dish soap works just as well.

I have found it to be very handy cleaning other items as well. Stainless pins are only good for one thing.